History of Rome

​The same ardor existed both in the Roman army and in the other general, nor was the fortune of an immediate conflict delayed by anything except the counsel and authority of one man, who was seeking an opportunity to increase their strength by rational means by prolonging the war.

​Therefore, the enemy pressed on all the more and no longer merely deployed their battle line in front of their own camp, but advanced into the middle of the plain and, by carrying their standards near to the rampart of the enemy, displayed a proud confidence in their strength. The Roman soldier bore this with impatience, ​and much more impatiently did the other of the military tribunes, Lucius Furius, who was not only impetuous by reason of his youth and temperament, but also puffed up by the hope of the multitude, who derived their courage from the most uncertain grounds.

​He instigated the soldiers, who were already excited of themselves, still further by disparaging, in the only way he could, the authority of his colleague on account of his age, repeatedly declaring that wars were given to the young, and that minds flourish and decay together with bodies; that a dilatory man had been made out of a most fierce warrior, and ​that he who on his arrival had been accustomed to take camps and cities at the first assault, was now sitting idle within the rampart and wasting time, hoping for what addition to his own forces or what diminution of the enemy’s strength, ​what opportunity, what time, what place for laying ambushes? The counsels of the old man, he said, were cold and lifeless.

​But Camillus had enough both of life and of glory; what did it matter to let the strength of the state, which ought to be immortal, grow old along with one mortal body? By these speeches he had turned the whole camp towards himself, ​and when battle was demanded on all sides, he said, ’Marcus Furius, we cannot restrain the impetuosity of the soldiers, and the enemy, whose courage we have increased by delaying, now insults us with an arrogance that is by no means to be tolerated; yield, you alone to all, and suffer yourself to be overcome in counsel, so that you may conquer in war the sooner.’

​To this Camillus replied, that in the wars which had been waged under his own sole auspices up to that day, neither he nor the Roman people had repented either of his counsel or of their fortune; he knew now that he had a colleague equal in law and command, and superior in the vigor of his age;

​therefore, as far as the army was concerned, he had been accustomed to rule, not to be ruled; he could not obstruct the command of his colleague. Let him act, with the good help of the gods, as he should deem beneficial to the state;

​for his age he asked indulgence, that he might not be in the front line; whatever the duties of an old man in war might be, he would not fail in them. This only he prayed from the immortal gods, that no misfortune might make his own counsel appear commendable. But neither by men was his wholesome opinion heard, ​nor by the gods were such pious prayers heard. The author of the battle drew up the front line; Camillus strengthened the reserves and posted a strong guard in front of the camp; he himself took his stand on an elevated spot, an intent spectator of the issue of another’s counsel.